While brevity and immediacy are touchstones of news reporting, health and medical reporting must include sufficient context, background and perspective to be understandable and useful to audiences/readers.

Stories that fail to explain how new results or other announcements fit within the broader body of evidence do not serve the interests of the public

Deadline-pressured, budget-crunched news staffs routinely use portions of video news releases slickly-produced by vested interests in the health care industry, without telling the audience that part of what they're seeing is from slanted sources.

People are being thrown into this beat soon after getting their &quot;press card,&quot; and long before they're able to react with any seasoned judgment.

The television news industry has reacted to the void in health news specialists, scrambling to find anyone to plug into the spotlight, with an assumed title, and a promotable new niche.

&quot;Scientists expect us to include every counter story, every caveat, but you don’t have that luxury as a journalist. And your stories are competing with every other field of human knowledge. The person I have in mind when I write a story is the man who is only two clicks away from a story about the latest antics of Britney Spears.&quot;

“ You live in a bubble. Newspapers are imploding, we are struggling to deal with virtually no resources and increased demand for content and you offer no insight into how to produce quality stories under the circumstances. In a perfect world, we would all gladly embrace your guidelines, but it's far from a perfect world and you're obviously not acknowledging that.”

Introduction. Why was the study conducted, and what clinical question or hypothesis do the authors address? How does this study fit into the context of previous research conducted on the subject?

Methods. What is the design of the study? Are all of the items used in the study completely explained? Who are the subjects? How were they chosen? What are the inclusion criteria to be accepted into the study? What are the exclusion criteria to be excluded from the study? How large is the sample? Is the population being studied appropriate for the question researchers are looking to answer?

Results. Are the results statistically significant? Are they clinically significant?

Discussion. Are the key conclusions supported by the results? Are there any other ways to explain the data that the authors have not listed? Do the authors detail the limitations of their work?

References. Do the authors back up their statements with appropriate references? Do the authors cite their own previous work?